"President Xi Jinping visited here in 2014, and we are very proud. We are full of confidence in the development prospects here." Mohan Wijesinha, the 66-year-old legal general manager and the first local employee at the Colombo International Container Terminal in Sri Lanka, can't forget the scene when President Xi Jinping visited and inspected the project in Sri Lanka in 2014.

Nowadays, the port here is bustling with activity and the "City of the Future" is rising on the sea... China and Sri Lanka have achieved fruitful results in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and exchanges in various fields, adding new luster to Sri Lanka, the "pearl on the Indian Ocean".

"Jointly building a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future" - On January 15, President Xi Jinping held talks with Sri Lankan President Dissanayake who visited China on a state visit, injecting new impetus into the sincere, mutual assistance and long-term friendly strategic cooperative partnership between China and Sri Lanka.

Benefiting Future Generations

China will "promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, cooperation in modern agriculture, digital economy, marine economy and other fields, and create new highlights", and Sri Lanka is "committed to jointly building the Belt and Road and helping to improve regional connectivity" - In the talks between President Xi Jinping and President Dissanayake, the Belt and Road cooperation is one of the key words.

For thousands of years, maritime trade has brought prosperity to Sri Lanka. Today, this land continues to embrace the ocean with an open attitude. Living by the sea is a historical choice; thriving by the sea is the future direction.

Tall quay cranes stand in rows and containers are arranged in an orderly manner. Heavy trailers shuttle between the yard and the dock. In the more than ten years of China-Sri Lanka cooperation and operation, the facilities of the Colombo International Container Terminal have been continuously upgraded and the connecting shipping routes have become increasingly rich. The annual throughput has jumped from less than 600,000 TEUs to 3.35 million TEUs in 2024, driving the Colombo Port to make a great leap forward.

In the process of working together for development, Chinese enterprises have accumulated valuable experience in overseas terminal operation business. The person in charge of the terminal told the reporter: "Our international operation and management capabilities have been improved, laying the foundation for further expanding the global market."

At the southern end of Sri Lanka, there is the Hambantota comprehensive development project, a flagship project of China-Sri Lanka Belt and Road cooperation that President Xi Jinping cares about. It is about 10 nautical miles away from the main international shipping route. Relying on the construction of the Hambantota Port, it has driven the development of port services, maritime services and port-vicinity industries in the surrounding areas.

From a small fishing village in the past to a modern emerging industrial area today, Hambantota has achieved a magnificent transformation. The port throughput, the number of cruise ship berths and ship refueling times have reached new highs, the equipment has been continuously updated, the container business has continued to expand, and the construction of the port-vicinity industrial park is progressing smoothly... Good news has come one after another. The Sri Lanka Shippers' Association has hailed it as the "diamond on the crown".

"This was one of the least developed areas in Sri Lanka. The Hambantota Port has brought the hope of development, not only more job opportunities, but more importantly, it has laid the foundation for the development of Sri Lanka's port industry, which will benefit our future generations." said Jivan Premasara, the 46-year-old senior manager of the Human Resources Department of the Hambantota International Port Group.

Hope Rising

Overlooking Colombo from the air, a semi-circular breakwater is like an arm, embracing the coast of the Colombo Port City. In 2014, President Xi Jinping personally laid the foundation stone, unveiled the plaque and cut the ribbon for the start of construction of the Colombo Port City. For more than ten years, this flagship project of China-Sri Lanka Belt and Road cooperation has taken root and expanded in the blue sea, blowing sand to fill the sea and building breakwaters, realizing the transformation from an ocean to a piece of land and then to a city.

On January 10, the yacht marina commercial project here officially started construction, marking the entry of the Port City construction into a new stage. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said at the ceremony that the development of the new project in the Colombo Port City will fill the gap in high-end maritime services in South Asia and promote Sri Lanka to become a new hot spot for regional tourism and investment.

The dream of the "City of the Future" is gradually becoming a reality. And for the future of the city and the country, the choices of the youth often have the significance of a vane.

Sitmi Maligaspe, a post-00s girl, has joined the Colombo Port City project for more than a year. She told the reporter in fluent Chinese that now many Sri Lankan young people are learning Chinese, hoping to open up a broader development space and access more advanced industries and management models. "For me, the significance of the Port City lies in attracting and retaining the young people of Sri Lanka. Only by retaining the young people can the country have a better development."

Chairman of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Harsha Amarasekera said that after the Port City is fully put into operation in the future, it will create at least 140,000 direct jobs for Sri Lanka and significantly boost Sri Lanka's economic growth. "We are confident that the Port City will be built into the economic development engine, regional financial and industrial center of Sri Lanka."

"Such Belt and Road cooperation projects have made Sri Lankans see the hope of the future rising from the sea." Yassiru Ranarajah, the founding director of the Sri Lanka Belt and Road Organization, told the reporter. He paid great attention to the news of the talks between the two heads of state and was particularly excited about the two heads of state jointly witnessing the signing of the Belt and Road cooperation plan and a number of bilateral cooperation documents. "I look forward to the continuous deepening of cooperation and win-win results between Sri Lanka and China in the fields of infrastructure construction, energy development, agricultural modernization and so on."

Narrowing the Psychological Distance

The 100-rupee note is the most commonly used banknote by the people of Sri Lanka. The locals pointed to the building on the banknote and said: "This is the Norochcholai Power Station built by China."

On the Kalpitiya Peninsula, about 130 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, a huge power station, three tall chimneys and more than ten rotating windmills stand between the sea and the sky, guarding the lights of thousands of families in Sri Lanka. During President Xi Jinping's visit to Sri Lanka in 2014, he attended the video connection 启用仪式 of this important China-Sri Lanka cooperation project.

Since its commissioning, the Norochcholai Coal-fired Power Station has accounted for about 40% of the country's total electricity consumption in previous years, greatly relieving the power shortage situation in Sri Lanka. Li Wenfeng, the site manager of the power station, introduced that as a China-Sri Lanka Belt and Road cooperation project, the Norochcholai Coal-fired Power Station follows strict environmental protection standards and effectively controls emissions through various measures, not only protecting the local clear water and blue sky, but also promoting enterprises to actively practice in the field of green environmental protection.

In the home of Menaka Weeraddagama, a 32-year-old power station employee, the rotating electric fan dispels the heat wave. In a blink of an eye, she has worked in the power station for 11 years. In her opinion, the power station not only makes electricity more economical and affordable, but also becomes an important landmark symbolizing a better life. There are always newly married couples coming here to take pictures. "I'm very proud that the power station is deeply recognized by everyone."

The people of China and Sri Lanka have shared the development achievements through the Belt and Road cooperation, forged a deep friendship and narrowed the psychological distance. In Makandura, North Western Province, Chinese agricultural experts have brought professional technology into local orchards and formed friendships with farmers; in some places in central Sri Lanka, where the water quality is poor and the incidence of chronic kidney disease is high, experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have used nanofiltration, electrodialysis and other technologies to build a drinking water demonstration project, enabling local people to drink "rest assured water"; the southern railway extension line constructed by Chinese enterprises has become the first newly built railway since Sri Lanka's independence, facilitating people's travel and opening a new chapter in the history of Sri Lanka's railways.

Ginith De Silva, the president of the Sri Lanka-China Association, deeply agrees with President Xi Jinping's emphasis on "strengthening the people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two sides and enhancing the 'heart-to-heart connection' between the two peoples" in the talks between the two heads of state. He said that the friendly relations between Sri Lanka and China have a long history and the people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation have continued to deepen in recent years. The construction of the China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future has a deep public opinion foundation. "I am full of confidence in this and it will better benefit the people of the two countries."（Outlook New Era）